Finding a new team via free agency does not appear to be an option for Alex Smith -- at least not this offseason.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting sources have told him the 49ers are "highly, highly, highly unlikely" to release Smith into free agency.
Is this another way of saying the 49ers really, really, really expect to have suitors for Smith in a trade beginning on March 12, or that the team would rather keep Smith and the $8.5 million owed to him in 2013 rather than let him walk with nothing in return.
Smith is owed $7.5 million of the $8.5 million he will make in 2013 on April 1, forcing the 49ers to make a decision on his future before that deadline.
Several teams are presumably interested in Smith. The Cleveland Browns appear to be a nice fit, especially with Norv Turner as their new offensive coordinator. As offensive coordinator for the 49ers in 2006, Turner guided Smith to a 58.1 completion percentage and 2,890 yards passing in a 7-9 year.
The Chiefs seem to be the favorite at the moment, however, based on new general manager John Dorsey's comments on the caliber of the quarterbacks in the 2013 draft class.
"There is no quarterback where personnel guys can definitely say, 'He's a first-round pick,'" Dorsey said. "There were so many inconsistencies in the collective group. There was not one guy that stood up and said, 'I'm the guy in the position this year.' There really wasn't one clear-cut guy."
The Chiefs desperately need a quarterback, and with Smith arguably being the best available at the position this offseason, it is no surprise that the two would be linked.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle's Eric Branch, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke and Smith have discussed the future of the high-paid backup quarterback.
"We had a great meal," Baalke said. "We had a great discussion. I can't say enough good things. And I think if you ask anyone in our organization they would say the same thing: He is a pro's pro. And I have nothing but great respect for him, his family, and we're certainly going to do everything in our power to make the best decision for everyone involved."
The best decision for the 49ers is by no means the best decision for Smith, though. The ideal situation for the 49ers is to trade Smith and receive decent draft picks and/or players in return. For Smith, immediate release from the 49ers allows him to receive the maximum attention from prospective teams looking for a starting quarterback starting on March 12.
San Francisco is going to do what is best for the team, as Mortensen's report further confirmed. The 49ers will pursue trading Smith up until April 1, at which time they will need to reevaluate the situation by either cutting Smith loose and saving $7.5 million, or keeping him as a rather expensive backup quarterback in 2013.
All indications are that the team is leaning towards keeping Smith as their backup to starter Colin Kaepernick if a trade is no longer an option. But Smith's leadership and guidance on the sideline for Kaepernick would be a major positive for the 49ers, as well as a bit of safety if the injury-prone "pistol" offense decides to backfire on Kaepernick.
Scott Semmler is a senior at San Jose State University fortunate enough to have covered nearly every Bay Area professional sports team, including the San Francisco Giants' 2012 World Series title. Follow him on Twitter @ScottSemmler22.
Republican Chuck Hagel testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 31, 2103. (J. Scott Applew??Fifteen Republican senators, including potential 2016 White House contender Marco Rubio, urged President Barack Obama in a letter released on Thursday to withdraw Chuck Hagel's nomination as defense secretary. But the Republican former senator's chances of confirmation also got a big boost when another GOP lawmaker, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, said he would support it.
Shelby told the Decatur Daily that he would back Hagel, who now appears to have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster?barring some last-minute surprise. "He's probably as good as we're going to get," Shelby said.
The White House last week denounced Senate Republicans? unprecedented filibuster of the Hagel nomination (no Cabinet-level post dealing with national security had ever before faced a successful one). In the letter, the lawmakers argued in effect that this was Hagel's own fault.
?It would be unprecedented for a Secretary of Defense to take office without a broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively in this critical position,? the senators, led by John Cornyn of Texas, said in the message to Obama. "While we respect Senator Hagel?s honorable military service, in the interest of national security, we respectfully request that you withdraw his nomination."
In addition to Rubio and Cornyn, Republican Sens. James Inhofe, Lindsey Graham, Roger Wicker, David Vitter, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Pat Toomey, Dan Coats, Ron Johnson, James Risch, John Barrasso, Tom Coburn and Tim Scott signed the letter. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it has flatly dismissed similar calls in the past, noting that Hagel has more than the 51 votes needed for confirmation.
In the letter the senators also denounced Hagel?s ?erratic record and myriad conversions on key national security issues? and openly doubted ?his basic competence to meet the substantial demand of the office.?
They charged that he ?proclaimed the legitimacy of the current regime in Tehran.? During his wobbly confirmation hearing performance, Hagel had said America?s allies consider that regime ?an elected, legitimate government, whether we agree or not.?
They also accused Hagel of showing ?a seeming ambivalence about whether containment or prevention is the best approach, which gives us great concern.?
In the hearing, Hagel mistakenly broke with Obama?s policy of preventing Iran from develop nuclear weapons and suggested he favored ?containment? instead. He tried to correct himself after being handed a note by an aide, but it was ultimately Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., who fixed the gaffe. Hagel also struggled to explain his past opposition to imposing unilateral economic sanctions on Iran.
?If Senator Hagel becomes Secretary of Defense, the military option will have near zero credibility,? the senators said in the letter. ?This sends a dangerous message to the regime in Tehran, as it seeks to obtain the means necessary to harm both the United States and Israel.? (There?s another possibility: Maybe Hagel means war with Iran is actually more likely.)
After months of build-up, we're almost to the historic bout between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche, which headlines UFC 157 in Anaheim. Here is how we think the fights will go. A big thank you to all the Cagereaders who contributed their picks.
Kevin Iole ?Ronda Rousey SUB1 Liz Carmouche: Scottie Bowman, the greatest hockey coach ever, always would say he'd stick with the hot hand. In this case, the hot hand is Rousey. She's got a far better athletic pedigree and she's looked unbeatable against elite competition in Kaufmann and Tate. First-round arm bar win for Rousey
Maggie Hendricks ? Ronda Rousey SUB1 Liz Carmouche: The thing about Rousey's armbar is that it's going to be unstoppable until someone stops it. Brilliant, right? Because of the move's unpredictability, it's equally difficult to predict who will be the one who can stop it.
Cagereader ? My pick: Ronda Rousey by first round armbar. Yes, again. I don't think anyone's got her figured out yet, and her aggression is too much to deal with for anyone at this point. -- Dan Butera
Cagereader ? Rousey. She has more to offer than Carmouche. I think it will be Rousey's longest fight ever since Carmouche is a scrappy chick. She definitely has her work cut out for her. -- Charlotte Petroskey
***
Kevin Iole ? Dan Henderson TKO2 Lyoto Machida: Henderson is going to grind on Machida and wear him down until he gets enough space to land his big right hand.
Maggie Hendricks ? Dan Henderson W3 Lyoto Machida: As Kevin Iole points out in his column, Machida is not the elusive fighter he once was. Henderson will wear him down and take the bout.
Cagereader ? I'll take Machida over Henderson. Machida's height, reach, and long torso is going to make it very hard for Hendo to impose his will. Throw in Machida's speed advantage, faster punches, better cardio, and youth, and this one could end up being lopsided. Dan Henderson, as always, does have a puncher's chance, but that is about it in my opinion. -- Buddy Kreutzer
***
Kevin Iole ? Urijah Faber SUB3 Ivan Menjivar: Faber hasn't fought like a star in a while and the pressure is on him to do so. He's primed for a good performance and I think he delivers it.
Maggie Hendricks ? Urijah Faber SUB2 Ivan Menjivar: Fighting in California, Faber should be able to get back on the winning track and outgrapple Menjivar for a win.
Cagereader ? Though both Faber and his opponent are very dynamic and multidimensional, predict the intense energy will lead to an unpredictable TKO with Faber winning! -- Ernie Brewer
***
Kevin Iole ? Josh Neer W3 Court McGee: This is a flip-a-coin match so I'm going to go with the guy with more experience.
Maggie Hendricks ? Court McGee W3 Josh Neer: Yep, pretty much what Kevin said, so my coin flipped to McGee.
Cagereader ? Hard not to like McGee's drop to 170. His smothering style should win the day. McGee by Decision. - John Wilcox
***
Kevin Iole ? Josh Koscheck W3 Robbie Lawler: Lawler is simply not the same fighter he once was. I think Koscheck wins a pretty wide decision here.
Maggie Hendricks ? Josh Koscheck W3 Robbie Lawler: Though Koscheck is coming off of a loss, Lawler hasn't done much to show he can stop Koscheck's wrestling or striking.
Cagereader ? I think Koscheck to beat Lawler. Kos will be desperate to get back into the win column and I see him wearing down Robbie with his outstanding wrestling ability and finishing him late on as Lawler tires. Koscheck by RNC round 3. - Craig Donaldson
Forgot to make your picks on Facebook in time for this post? That's OK. Post them here, on Facebook or on Twitter.
Feb. 21, 2013 ? Scientists at Baycrest Health Sciences' Rotman Research Institute (RRI) and the University of Toronto's Psychology Department have found compelling evidence that older adults can eliminate forgetfulness and perform as well as younger adults on memory tests.
Scientists used a distraction learning strategy to help older adults overcome age-related forgetting and boost their performance to that of younger adults. Distraction learning sounds like an oxymoron, but a growing body of science is showing that older brains are adept at processing irrelevant and relevant information in the environment, without conscious effort, to aid memory performance.
"Older brains may be be doing something very adaptive with distraction to compensate for weakening memory," said Ren?e Biss, lead investigator and PhD student. "In our study we asked whether distraction can be used to foster memory-boosting rehearsal for older adults. The answer is yes!"
"To eliminate age-related forgetfulness across three consecutive memory experiments and help older adults perform like younger adults is dramatic and to our knowledge a totally unique finding," said Lynn Hasher, senior scientist on the study and a leading authority in attention and inhibitory functioning in younger and older adults. "Poor regulation of attention by older adults may actually have some benefits for memory."
The findings, published online February 21 in Psychological Science, ahead of print publication, have intriguing implications for designing learning strategies for the mature, older student and equipping senior-housing with relevant visual distraction cues throughout the living environment that would serve as rehearsal opportunities to remember things like an upcoming appointment or medications to take, even if the cues aren't consciously paid attention to.
The study
In three experiments, healthy younger adults recruited from the University of Toronto (aged 17- 27) and healthy older adults from the community (aged 60 -- 78) were asked to study and recall a list of words after a short delay and again, on a surprise test, after a 15-minute delay.
During the delay period, half of the studied words occurred again as distraction while people were doing a very simple attention task on pictures. Although repeating words as distracters had no impact on the memory performance of young adults, it boosted older adults' memory for those words by 30% relative to words that had not repeated as distraction.
"Our findings point to exciting possibilities for using strategically-placed relevant distraction as memory aids for older adults -- whether it's in classroom, at home or in a long term care environment," said Biss.
While older adults are watching television or playing a game on a tablet, boosting memory for goals (such as remembering to make a phone call or send a holiday card) could be accomplished by something as simple as running a stream of target information across the bottom of their tablet or TV.
The study was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care.
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Journal Reference:
R. K. Biss, K. W. J. Ngo, L. Hasher, K. L. Campbell, G. Rowe. Distraction Can Reduce Age-Related Forgetting. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797612457386
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Fruit flies force their young to drink alcohol -- for their own goodPublic release date: 22-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory Health Sciences
Fruit fly study adds to evidence that using toxins in the environment to medicate offspring may be common across the animal kingdom
When fruit flies sense parasitic wasps in their environment, they lay their eggs in an alcohol-soaked environment, essentially forcing their larvae to consume booze as a drug to combat the deadly wasps.
The discovery by biologists at Emory University is being published in the journal Science on Friday, February 22.
"The adult flies actually anticipate an infection risk to their children, and then they medicate them by depositing them in alcohol," says Todd Schlenke, the Emory evolutionary geneticist whose lab led the research. "We found that this medicating behavior was shared by diverse fly species, adding to the evidence that using toxins in the environment to medicate offspring may be common across the animal kingdom."
Adult fruit flies detect the wasps by sight, and appear to have much better vision than previously realized, he adds. "Our data indicate that the flies can visually distinguish the relatively small morphological differences between male and female wasps, and between different species of wasps."
The experiments were led by Balint Zacsoh, who recently graduated from Emory with a degree in biology and still works in the Schlenke lab. The team also included Emory graduate student Zachary Lynch and postdoc Nathan Mortimer.
The larvae of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, eat the rot, or fungi and bacteria, that grows on overripe, fermenting fruit. They have evolved a certain amount of resistance to the toxic effects of the alcohol levels in their natural habitat, which can range up to 15 percent.
Tiny, endoparasitoid wasps are major killers of fruit flies. The wasps inject their eggs inside the fruit fly larvae, along with venom that aims to suppress their hosts' cellular immune response. If the flies fail to kill the wasp egg, a wasp larva hatches inside the fruit fly larva and begins to eat its host from the inside out.
Last year, the Schlenke lab published a study showing how fruit fly larvae infected with wasps prefer to eat food high in alcohol. This behavior greatly improves the survival rate of the fruit flies because they have evolved high tolerance of the toxic effects of the alcohol, but the wasps have not.
"The fruit fly larvae raise their blood alcohol levels, so that the wasps living in their blood will suffer," Schlenke says. "When you think of an immune system, you usually think of blood cells and immune proteins, but behavior can also be a big part of an organism's immune defense."
For the latest study, the researchers asked whether the fruit fly parents could sense when their children were at risk for infection, and whether they then sought out alcohol to prophylactically medicate them.
Adult female fruit flies were released in one mesh cage with parasitic wasps and another mesh cage with no wasps. Both cages had two petri dishes containing yeast, the nourishment for lab-raised fruit flies and their larvae. The yeast in one of the petri dishes was mixed with 6 percent alcohol, while the yeast in the other dish was alcohol free. After 24 hours, the petri dishes were removed and the researchers counted the eggs that the fruit flies had laid.
The results were dramatic. In the mesh cage with parasitic wasps, 90 percent of the eggs laid were in the dish containing alcohol. In the cage with no wasps, only 40 percent of the eggs were in the alcohol dish.
"The fruit flies clearly change their reproductive behavior when the wasps are present," Schlenke says. "The alcohol is slightly toxic to the fruit flies as well, but the wasps are a bigger danger than the alcohol."
The fruit flies strains used in the experiments have been bred in the lab for decades. "The flies that we work with have not seen wasps in their lives before, and neither have their ancestors going back hundreds of generations," Schlenke says. "And yet, the flies still recognize these wasps as a danger when they are put in a cage with them."
Further experiments showed that the flies are extremely discerning about differences in the wasps. They preferred to lay their eggs in alcohol when female wasps were present, but not if only male wasps were in the cage.
Theorizing that the flies were reacting to pheromones, the researchers conducted experiments using two groups of mutated fruit flies. One group lacked the ability to smell, and another group lacked sight. The flies unable to smell, however, still preferred to lay their eggs in alcohol when female wasps were present. The blind flies did not make the distinction, choosing the non-alcohol food for their offspring, even in the presence of female wasps.
"This result was a surprise to me," Schlenke says. "I thought the flies were probably using olfaction to sense the female wasps. The small, compound eyes of flies are believed to be more geared to detecting motion than high-resolution images."
The only obvious visual differences between the female and male wasps, he adds, is that the males have longer antennae, slightly smaller bodies, and lack an ovipositor.
Further experimentation showed that the fruit flies can distinguish different species of wasps, and will only choose the alcohol food in response to wasp species that infect larvae, not fly pupae. "Fly larvae usually leave the food before they pupate," Schlenke explains, "so there is likely little benefit to laying eggs at alcoholic sites when pupal parasites are present."
The researchers also connected the exposure to female parasitic wasps to changes in a fruit fly neuropeptide.
Stress, and the resulting reduced level of neuropeptide F, or NPF, has previously been associated with alcohol-seeking behavior in fruit flies. Similarly, the level of a homologous neuropeptide in humans, NPY, is associated with alcoholism.
"We found that when a fruit fly is exposed to female parasitic wasps, this exposure reduces the level of NPF in the fly brain, causing the fly to seek out alcoholic sites for oviposition," Schlenke says. "Furthermore, the alcohol-seeking behavior appears to remain for the duration of the fly's life, even when the parasitic wasps are no longer present, an example of long-term memory."
Finally, Drosophila melanogaster is not unique in using this offspring medication behavior. "We tested a number of fly species," Schlenke says, "and found that each fly species that uses rotting fruit for food mounts this immune behavior against parasitic wasps. Medication may be far more common in nature than we previously thought."
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Fruit flies force their young to drink alcohol -- for their own goodPublic release date: 22-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory Health Sciences
Fruit fly study adds to evidence that using toxins in the environment to medicate offspring may be common across the animal kingdom
When fruit flies sense parasitic wasps in their environment, they lay their eggs in an alcohol-soaked environment, essentially forcing their larvae to consume booze as a drug to combat the deadly wasps.
The discovery by biologists at Emory University is being published in the journal Science on Friday, February 22.
"The adult flies actually anticipate an infection risk to their children, and then they medicate them by depositing them in alcohol," says Todd Schlenke, the Emory evolutionary geneticist whose lab led the research. "We found that this medicating behavior was shared by diverse fly species, adding to the evidence that using toxins in the environment to medicate offspring may be common across the animal kingdom."
Adult fruit flies detect the wasps by sight, and appear to have much better vision than previously realized, he adds. "Our data indicate that the flies can visually distinguish the relatively small morphological differences between male and female wasps, and between different species of wasps."
The experiments were led by Balint Zacsoh, who recently graduated from Emory with a degree in biology and still works in the Schlenke lab. The team also included Emory graduate student Zachary Lynch and postdoc Nathan Mortimer.
The larvae of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, eat the rot, or fungi and bacteria, that grows on overripe, fermenting fruit. They have evolved a certain amount of resistance to the toxic effects of the alcohol levels in their natural habitat, which can range up to 15 percent.
Tiny, endoparasitoid wasps are major killers of fruit flies. The wasps inject their eggs inside the fruit fly larvae, along with venom that aims to suppress their hosts' cellular immune response. If the flies fail to kill the wasp egg, a wasp larva hatches inside the fruit fly larva and begins to eat its host from the inside out.
Last year, the Schlenke lab published a study showing how fruit fly larvae infected with wasps prefer to eat food high in alcohol. This behavior greatly improves the survival rate of the fruit flies because they have evolved high tolerance of the toxic effects of the alcohol, but the wasps have not.
"The fruit fly larvae raise their blood alcohol levels, so that the wasps living in their blood will suffer," Schlenke says. "When you think of an immune system, you usually think of blood cells and immune proteins, but behavior can also be a big part of an organism's immune defense."
For the latest study, the researchers asked whether the fruit fly parents could sense when their children were at risk for infection, and whether they then sought out alcohol to prophylactically medicate them.
Adult female fruit flies were released in one mesh cage with parasitic wasps and another mesh cage with no wasps. Both cages had two petri dishes containing yeast, the nourishment for lab-raised fruit flies and their larvae. The yeast in one of the petri dishes was mixed with 6 percent alcohol, while the yeast in the other dish was alcohol free. After 24 hours, the petri dishes were removed and the researchers counted the eggs that the fruit flies had laid.
The results were dramatic. In the mesh cage with parasitic wasps, 90 percent of the eggs laid were in the dish containing alcohol. In the cage with no wasps, only 40 percent of the eggs were in the alcohol dish.
"The fruit flies clearly change their reproductive behavior when the wasps are present," Schlenke says. "The alcohol is slightly toxic to the fruit flies as well, but the wasps are a bigger danger than the alcohol."
The fruit flies strains used in the experiments have been bred in the lab for decades. "The flies that we work with have not seen wasps in their lives before, and neither have their ancestors going back hundreds of generations," Schlenke says. "And yet, the flies still recognize these wasps as a danger when they are put in a cage with them."
Further experiments showed that the flies are extremely discerning about differences in the wasps. They preferred to lay their eggs in alcohol when female wasps were present, but not if only male wasps were in the cage.
Theorizing that the flies were reacting to pheromones, the researchers conducted experiments using two groups of mutated fruit flies. One group lacked the ability to smell, and another group lacked sight. The flies unable to smell, however, still preferred to lay their eggs in alcohol when female wasps were present. The blind flies did not make the distinction, choosing the non-alcohol food for their offspring, even in the presence of female wasps.
"This result was a surprise to me," Schlenke says. "I thought the flies were probably using olfaction to sense the female wasps. The small, compound eyes of flies are believed to be more geared to detecting motion than high-resolution images."
The only obvious visual differences between the female and male wasps, he adds, is that the males have longer antennae, slightly smaller bodies, and lack an ovipositor.
Further experimentation showed that the fruit flies can distinguish different species of wasps, and will only choose the alcohol food in response to wasp species that infect larvae, not fly pupae. "Fly larvae usually leave the food before they pupate," Schlenke explains, "so there is likely little benefit to laying eggs at alcoholic sites when pupal parasites are present."
The researchers also connected the exposure to female parasitic wasps to changes in a fruit fly neuropeptide.
Stress, and the resulting reduced level of neuropeptide F, or NPF, has previously been associated with alcohol-seeking behavior in fruit flies. Similarly, the level of a homologous neuropeptide in humans, NPY, is associated with alcoholism.
"We found that when a fruit fly is exposed to female parasitic wasps, this exposure reduces the level of NPF in the fly brain, causing the fly to seek out alcoholic sites for oviposition," Schlenke says. "Furthermore, the alcohol-seeking behavior appears to remain for the duration of the fly's life, even when the parasitic wasps are no longer present, an example of long-term memory."
Finally, Drosophila melanogaster is not unique in using this offspring medication behavior. "We tested a number of fly species," Schlenke says, "and found that each fly species that uses rotting fruit for food mounts this immune behavior against parasitic wasps. Medication may be far more common in nature than we previously thought."
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
If passengers are allowed to carry guns on CTA rail lines, train operators should pack weapons ? and be paid extra for doing so, the head of the union that represents CTA rail workers said Thursday.
Robert Kelly, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, said he is ?totally opposed?? to any legislation that would allow Illinois residents to carry concealed weapons.
His members don?t want to carry guns, Kelly said, but if the law passes, ?[Do] you want a train full of people to carry guns and tell the operator, ?You?re on your own??
?You have to make it fair. You?ll have to arm our people,?? Kelly said.
CTA rail workers should get special training if they have to carry guns and should be paid extra for doing so, Kelly said.
The Illinois House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on the concealed carry issue at 10 a.m. Friday in Room 600 of the Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle.
A federal appeals court in December tossed out Illinois? prohibition on carrying concealed weapons and ordered lawmakers to draw up a law by early June on the issue.
CTA President Forrest Claypool said Thursday that allowing guns on CTA buses and trains would be ?disastrous.?? Buses can involve ?crowded conditions?? where gun-carriers could be bumped or jostled, causing a weapon to discharge, he said.
The close and enclosed quarters of a bus or train are clearly different than an open street, said Claypool.
CTA, Metra and Pace have all urged the General Assembly to ban guns on public transit but earlier this week, a National Rifle Association lobbyist told a legislative hearing that transit passengers shouldn?t be prohibited from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
FILE ? In this Feb. 12, 2009, file photo smoke rises from a burning Continental Express commuter plane after it crashed into a home in suburban Buffalo, killing 50 people. Federal regulators haven't lived up to promises made after the crash to see that major airlines ensure the smaller airlines who operate flights under contract for them meet the same safety standards, according to a report by the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)
FILE ? In this Feb. 12, 2009, file photo smoke rises from a burning Continental Express commuter plane after it crashed into a home in suburban Buffalo, killing 50 people. Federal regulators haven't lived up to promises made after the crash to see that major airlines ensure the smaller airlines who operate flights under contract for them meet the same safety standards, according to a report by the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Since a deadly airline crash in 2009, the government hasn't kept its promise to ensure that major airlines are holding their smaller partners to the same safety standards, a federal watchdog says.
The Transportation Department's inspector general faults the Federal Aviation Administration for not taking steps to encourage the big airlines "to consistently share safety information and best practices" with regional airlines that operate flights under contract for them.
That business link is known as code-sharing, by which one airline sells tickets for seats on a flight operated by another airline ? United and United Express, for example.
More than half of all airline flights in the U.S. are operated by regional airlines using names such as United Express, Delta Connection, American Connection and US Airways Express under code-sharing arrangements.
A flight operated by regional carrier Colgan Air for Continental Airlines under the name Continental Express crashed in February 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people. After that crash, officials at the department and the FAA said they would begin reviewing code-share contracts to see if they impinged on safety.
Investigators cited pilot training lapses by Colgan as a factor. Colgan ended flying in September as part of its parent company's restructuring.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation and congressional hearings after the Colgan crash pointed out the differences in safety cultures that sometimes occur between the two types of airlines.
For example, at that time, some regional carriers were hiring pilots with as few as 250 hours of flight experience, which FAA rules allow. Major airlines typically hired pilots with about 10 times that much experience.
After the crash, pilot unions and safety advocates said regional carriers were driven to cut corners on safety, including hiring inexperienced pilots at low wages, in part to meet performance goals required under the code-sharing contracts. Airlines that met their goals often earned more money under the agreements, while those that failed to meet such goals were sometimes penalized.
The FAA, despite earlier promises, isn't reviewing any code-share contracts for their safety implications, and the Transportation Department reviews only a small share for their potential economic impact, not safety, the report said.
"As a result, most domestic code-share agreements go into effect without being reviewed by any (federal) regulatory entity," the report said.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report before its public release.
The FAA also doesn't have procedures in place "to advance the agency's commitment to ensure the same level of safety between mainline air carriers and their code-share partners," the report said.
Responding to the report, Robert Rivkin, the Transportation Department's general counsel, said the FAA "believes that all carriers ... meet an appropriate level of safety" regardless of whether they are in a code-share agreement.
After the Colgan crash, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and then-FAA chief Randy Babbitt announced an industry-government "call to action" and they held a well-publicized safety summit. An airline safety "action plan" released by FAA officials at the time promised that the FAA and the department would "develop the authority and processes to review agreements" between major carriers and their regional partners.
That plan said one of its short-term goals was that "major carriers should seek specific and concrete ways" to ensure that their smaller airline partner carriers adopt and implement the larger company's most effective practices for safety. That was to include periodic meetings to review safety data gathering programs and "to constantly emphasize their shared safety philosophy."
The inspector general's report said that although the FAA sponsors biannual information-sharing events for the airline industry, "it has not taken steps to encourage mainline carriers to consistently share safety information and best practices with their code-share partners."
The FAA dropped its plans to review code-sharing agreements because agency officials felt the largest airlines had taken steps to increase their safety sharing with their regional partners, the report said.
But the inspector general found that while that was true of one large airline, it wasn't the case for others. The report reviewed four major and eight regional carriers who participate in code share agreements, but did not identify the airlines.
Rivkin replied in a letter to the inspector general that the FAA doesn't make a distinction between "major" and "regional" carriers because "all of those carriers meet the same standards."
Scott Maurer, whose 30-year-old daughter, Lorin, died in the Colgan crash, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the inspector general's findings.
"These promises tend to end up becoming lip service," he said. "It sounds good at the time, but there is no follow through."
A year after the Colgan crash, then-Continental Airlines CEO Jeffrey Smisek angered victims' families when he said it was the FAA's responsibility to ensure Colgan's pilots were properly trained, not Continental's.
"We did not train those pilots. We did not maintain those aircraft. We did not operate the aircraft. But we expect them to be safe. We expect the Federal Aviation Administration to do its job," Smisek told a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The father of a law student killed in the crash later cornered Smisek in the hallway outside the hearing room, complaining that his daughter bought her ticket from Continental, not Colgan.
Smisek is now the president and CEO of the holding company for United Airlines, which merged with Continental.
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Follow Joan Lowy at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy
After months of build-up, we're almost to the historic bout between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche, which headlines UFC 157 in Anaheim. Here is how we think the fights will go. A big thank you to all the Cagereaders who contributed their picks.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tDwB17OlpztRC1-YpSrDDhlO7tm7f3qyIkGSWGaDaest-TnQnduMLxfnECdUZQVjuED6dhCho3ZKaQOZvGLYfugJdy7REoA8C7tVhsiD0=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Feb-2013
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